QUEEN

Non-Metal / Hard Rock / Proto-Metal • United Kingdom

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Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works, incorporating more diverse and innovative styles in their music.

History

In 1968, guitarist Brian May, a student at London's Imperial College, and bassist Tim Staffell decided to form a band. May placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type drummer; Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. The group called themselves Smile. While attending Ealing Art College, Tim Staffell became friends with Farrokh Bulsara, a fellow student who had assumed the English name of Freddie. Bulsara felt that he and the band had the same tastesread more...

QUEEN Reviews

I'll give this one two stars for one reason and one reason alone - Under Pressure, the legendary collaboration with David Bowie which brings back some of Queen's formerly formidable art rock chops at the tail end of this forgettable album. The preceding tracks, however, are all one-star crud: Queen were attempting to make something funky and danceable, but the fact is that they were stunningly inept at it, the end results being Freddie singing over backing tracks which sound like botched impressions of the sort of stunning material Prince was making around this time. If you really want a progressively minded fusion of rock music, funk, soul and R&B, any classic Prince album will serve you much better than this pretender.

The Flash Gordon remake was a calculated exercise in creating a deliberately cheesy movie, and it demanded a similarly cheesy soundtrack. Luckily, by this point in time Queen had become the masters of cheesy pomp-rock anthems, so who better to do the soundtrack? Aside from a few songs (such as the iconic opening track) Freddie restricts himself to keyboard work this time around, with snippets from the film providing the only vocals in many tracks, but the fact is that whilst the movie is goofy fun and the title track might be a good track to play when your sports team comes onto the field the album itself isn't really pleasant or interesting to listen to from beginning to end. Even Queen fans will struggle to sit through this one.

Queen had by this point become a rather soulless pop hit machine, cranking out catchy but disposable singles one after the other. This time around Another One Bites the Dust is the obligatory "anthem", Play the Game and Crazy Little Thing Called Love are the love songs, and the rest is rather forgettable. The band make a token effort to strike up some hard rock fury with Need Your Loving Tonight but fail to convince. The Game here is clearly "the music industry", and by this point Queen had become very adept at playing it indeed, because it sold like crazy - but do you know anyone who sincerely claims their favourite Queen song is Another One Bites the Dust? I don't.

I like to see progressive rock epics and albums as rock's own answer to classical symphonies and suites... complex, multifaceted, and brimming with technical skill. With the help of bands like Kansas, Genesis, Yes, and whoever else gets categorized in so-called "symphonic prog," 70s prog was able to be played on heavy rotation by those who didn't want to listen to the more simplistic forms of rock at the time. However, 70s-era Queen were always of a different breed. Yes, their music was complex. Yes, it was multifaceted. Yes, it contained varying time signatures. But what was so different? What really stood out? The charisma and bombast.

Freddie Mercury and co. were one of the very few acts to marry the complexity of prog with the mainstream success and streamlined nature of pop almost perfectly, something even Supertramp couldn't fully pull off (but they tried their best, that's for sure). "Queen" is such a fitting name for a group who could pull off pomp and eccentricity with such elegance and taste... and of course, there's the eclectic genre-bending involved as well. The band tried ragtime, hard rock, classical, jazz, gospel, metal, you name it. Oh sure, it felt a bit forced and out-of-control on occasion, but you can't really blame a band who are trying to expand the normal confines of hard rock. But here's the craziest thing: the album that only began to develop Queen's signature sound also happened to be one of their very best... perhaps their best, in fact. That, my friends, is Queen II.

Make no mistake, this is a full-fledged progressive rock album. Multitracked vocal harmonies run rampant, time signatures change quite frequently, and the band's signature stylistic shifts are here in full-form. Right from the dark funeral-like guitar overdubs of "Procession," you know you're in for a pretty unusual record from the get go; even more unique is the way the band had set up this epic album. First is Brian May's "white" side of the album which focuses on more beautiful and light tunes, whereas Mercury's "black" side is absolutely warped, outrageously bombastic, and extremely dark. With that said, let's just say that you shouldn't expect a whole lotta camp from this one like in later Queen works. Most of the material here replaces the band's usual humor and lightheartedness with more dramatic lyricism, much of it focusing on fantasy-influenced storytelling. Expect a dark record through and through, basically.

Aside from that, though, the real draw is in how well everyone in the band works in tandem with each other. John Deacon's bass perfectly compliments Freddie's piano playing in the somber "Nevermore," just like how Brian May's heavy guitar riffing and Roger Taylor's hollow and rough drum sound are a great fit in a hard-hitting song like "The Loser in the End." There's a genuine chemistry between the band members, something that seemed so powerful even in this phase of their career. Also, this is the first album in which the group's layered vocal harmonies came into high prominence, and they couldn't feel more welcome with the grandiose arrangements. The slow buildup in "Ogre Battle" leads into an incredibly loud burst of vocal bombast that has to be heard to be believed, and "March of the Black Queen"'s use of counterpoint brings out many highlights of this nature as well. That's not to say there aren't poppier or more tightly packed arrangements on here as well, as "Seven Seas of Rhye" and "Funny How Love Is" can prove, and these are placed right at the end to bring an optimistic end to a beautifully dark journey.

If Queen's debut was their set of musical blueprints, this is the towering skyscraper they were arranged to construct... and indeed it towers over most of its contemporaries, progressive rock or otherwise. It's beautiful, brutal, dark, florid, complex, and everything in between. But above all, it's simply a masterpiece. The combination of instrumental prowess and emotional depth is breathtaking... and to think that this was only the band's second record! It was clear that Queen's future would be bright, but it's cool to know that they had already mastered their craft early on; in any case, get this. I don't care if you enjoy rock, pop, classical, jazz, whatever. Just get this.

I admit I'm quite mainstream with my feelings of this album. But it is very hard not to be, looking at the variety of the songs which already makes this album as complex as possible without looking at the really complex songs. There's only one superfluous track, God Save The Queen, but if you put it into context with the name of the band and eccentrics of some of the musicians, it finds some justification, too. But let's start at the beginning.

The piano intro to the first track is a first hint of what to expect and soon evolves into the accusing Death On Two Legs, a song directly aimed at the boss of their former record company who tried to have it banned, but without success. It is followed by the short and innocent Lazing On a Sunday Afternoon and the very heavy anthem of every proud European middle class twenty-odd year old man, I'm In Love With My Car. It is only after this fabulous song that the first half second of actual silence is set before the next song, one of Queen's classics, You're My Best Friend, the first ballad on the album. Number five is an up-tempo acoustic piece with Brian May at the microphone, '39 with some weird lyrics. It is followed by another Heavy Metal track, Sweet Lady, which is really good for a "weakest" song of the album, before side 1 ends with funky and funny Seaside Rendez-Vous.

All in all, 7 fine and nice short songs that would make a fine album for themselves if re-recorded in some extended versions. But then the extensions would probably only destroy the compact and strong feeling of those songs.

This all ends with the first track of the second side of the album. The definition of "epic" songs is a very wide one, and many prog fans use a certain length in minutes and seconds as the only parameter. While this is an easy and clear option, it sometimes does not do the songs justice. The Prophet's Song is one example, as many would not consider it long enough. But the song's structure more than makes up for the missing two or so minutes. The acapella section in the middle of the song is certainly not everybody's darling, but I like it not only because it hints at what will still come, but also for the show of vocal skill of all 4 band members. The outro is a direct link to the second ballad of the album, Love Of My Life which shows that Freddie Mercury might have been a strong contestant to Elton John in the race for best piano rock performer if he had wanted to. The album closes in to the end and gives the audience three and a half minutes to either dance or breathe through with the easy going Good Company before Freddie Mercury unleashes his opus magnum.

When I first heard Bohemian Rhapsody as a 13 year old lass, I hated it because I didn't understand the complexity of both music and lyrics. A few years later, when I had become older and wiser (yes this pun was borrowed from Alan Parsons), this epic song had become another of my all time top 5 songs and will probably never be relegated from this status. The gong at the end would be a perfect conclusion for the album, but this is Queen, so the British anthem was added as an outro and doesn't even spoil the overall impression of genius.

Full and undisputed 5 stars for one of the greatest albums ever recorded.

QUEEN Movies Reviews

I have seen a few other Queen DVDs and have a penchant for concert Blu Rays in general so I had high expectations going into this. Queen Rock Montreal not only lived up to my expectations but in many areas exceeded them. Not only is the concert filmed just before the synthesizers-period, with the band absolutely playing the hell out of their instruments, but the technical aspects of the concert recording are top notch too, leaving the whole thing great in all departments.

The sound quality is absolutely superb, crystal clear and very big, which really brings to attention all the skill and virtuosity with which Queen played the gig, and that's not just the mix but the recording quality itself too.

The video, which is of course excellent in the main concert, has been scrutinized and cleaned up on the original 35mm prints before being re-scanned for maximum quality, there is even a fairly detailed description of the process in the linear notes. Consequently, the concert looks amazing and clear in a way no other Queen concert does as of yet.

In terms of the concert itself, there is no question of quality whatsoever. Queen are absolutely electric and deliver a wide array of some of their hardest and heaviest material in about as energetic and impressive a performance as has been captured on film, and mix it up with a few quieter numbers for balance and variety, leaving a full and complete Queen concert experience.

The band don't even just stick to the big radio hits either, playing material such as 'Dragon Attack,' 'Get Down Make Love,' and 'Sheer Heart Attack,' that you wouldn't necessarily expect in with the 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' and 'Under Pressure,' level songs.

The highlights for me were the excellent performance of 'I'm In Love With My Car,' with Roger both singing masterfully and nailing the drum fills to perfection as well as their fast and hard rendition of early number 'Keep Yourself Alive.'

The band's performance is excellent, the track listing is excellent and the audio visual quality is excellent. What more could you possibly ask for in a concert Blu Ray ?

In terms of extras, you get commentary from Brian and Roger, A hilariously bad 80s TV special on Queen, An interesting rehearsal/interview for Live Aid and of course the excellent Live Aid performance itself, which doesn't even require describing it is that well regarded.

Overall I highly recommend this product, I enjoy a lot of Live Concert DVDs and Blu Rays and this is definitely one of the finest I've come across, especially if you like the harder rock side of Queen.